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THE ARMED SERVICES AND AUXILIARY SERVICES
The Royal Navy employs 265 locally-entered Chinese ratings in various capacities including cooks, stewards, technicians and seamen. Some of the ratings help to man ships in the squadron. A further 700 locally-recruited merchant seamen and store- housemen serve world-wide in 10 ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Service providing logistic support for ships of Her Majesty's Fleet. Laundering, tailoring, shoemaking and hairdressing facilities are provided for the fleet by 258 Hong Kong Chinese sea- going civilians. Also within HMS Tamar a work-force of 60 civilians is employed. Their tasks include clerical work, storekeeping, ship berthing, transport and base maintenance.
Carrying on a long-standing tradition, the Royal Navy has continued to assist villagers in the rural areas of the Sai Kung and Tolo peninsulas and on nearby islands. This has included the setting up of an electrical generator maintenance scheme whereby periodic checks are made of electrical generating equipment at 14 different locations. A complete overhaul of the generators at Kau Sai and Yim Tin Tsai has been com- pleted, together with on-site maintenance of the generators at Tap Mun fishermen's village, Ap Chau and Tai Long. Renovation of the pier at Pak Lap, diversion of a stream and underpinning of an adjacent building at Lai Chi Wo, repairs to a fresh water pipe line at Tai Long, and the extinguishing of hill fires on Double Island are but a few of the many varied tasks carried out by the Royal Navy in 1978.
Support for youth organisations by the Royal Navy has increased. The Hong Kong Sea School at Stanley and various training ships of the Hong Kong Sea Cadet Corps receive active sea training with the ships of the Hong Kong Squadron. Visits to the Hong Kong Squadron and HMS Tamar by youth, hospital, and school groups and handicapped people have increased and are very popular. The Royal Navy in Hong Kong has also provided sea transport for the Summer Youth Leadership camps and an instructor at Sai Kung for the Armed Forces Recreation Camps at Cassino Lines during the summer months.
The Army provides the bulk of the forces in Hong Kong, under the direct command of the Commander British Forces. Operational units are concentrated into one forma- tion -- the Gurkha Field Force - and logistic units are grouped as support troops under the command of Deputy Commander British Forces.
Units stationed in Hong Kong during 1978 were: 1st Battalion the Royal Green Jackets; 1st Battalion of the 2nd, King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles; 2nd Battalion of the 2nd, King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles; 7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles; and 10th Princess Mary's Own Gurkha Rifles.
The primary task of the Army in Hong Kong is to operate in support of the Hong Kong Government, in particular the Royal Hong Kong Police Force. In the border area and the outlying islands the Army, in conjunction with the police, has been closely associated with government efforts to prevent illegal immigration. Patrols are regularly carried out in the more inaccessible areas of the New Territories and the outlying islands. Apart from its military activities, the Army has also provided support in the form of emergency fire-fighting units for hill and forest fires.
Approximately 200 separate community relations projects were undertaken by Army units. These included two three-week youth leadership camps based at Erskine Camp in the Sai Kung peninsula for 240 youngsters. In addition, 27 camps were run for District and City District Offices with the aim of introducing young people from
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